


Our Leader

by Sparklez112



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Evil(?) Blockberry CEO, Gen, Haseul best leader, I'll put warnings in the notes, Inspired by Alice in Wonderland, Kind of sci-fi?, Nightmare Imagery, Requires suspension of disbelief lol, discussions of mental health, momseul, some violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26649187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sparklez112/pseuds/Sparklez112
Summary: Haseul leaves the dorm in the dead of night, carrying nothing with her except a small bag of belongings and the satisfaction of knowing it's better this way.Just when she thinks she's left the group behind, she's sucked into a nightmare world where she must figure out how to save her members from their worst fears.
Relationships: Jo Haseul & Her Members
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heyyy new fic!
> 
> Missing Haseul hours last all day long for me, even though I'm very glad she's recovering well and doing what's best for her mental health. This fic will hopefully provide some OT12 content as we await the comeback.  
> Nothing too heavy in this chapter: alludes to some internal self-esteem struggles, but nothing major.
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy!

As Haseul stared out of the dorm bedroom window, she wondered if there actually were stars lighting up the sky or if the tears dotted in her eyes just made it look like there were.

Her roommates were all passed out in their beds: they hadn’t so much as shifted in their sleep for the past half an hour.

Haseul knew what she had to do.  
If she didn’t do it now, she never would.

Slowly lifting herself out from under her covers so as to not wake anyone else up, she reached under her bed to grab her packed bag.  
With light footsteps, she went over to her nightstand and grabbed the letter she’d addressed to her members. She set it on top of her pillow, hoping that someone would find it in the morning.

There was one thing she knew she had to do before she left.

Haseul carefully walked over to where Yeojin was sound asleep. There wasn’t much risk of waking her up, she was the heaviest sleeper in the dorm.

In the moonlight streaming through the window Haseul could see Yeojin’s chest rise up and down as she slept, an adorable smile on her lips. Just looking at the girl was enough to almost make her reconsider.

Almost.  
But it was for their own good.

Haseul leaned down, giving the maknae a kiss on the top of her head.

“I love you, Yeojinie. Never stop being yourself.”

She double-checked to make sure she hadn’t woken anyone up with her whispering, finally leaving the room as quietly as possible.

Haseul clutched her bag as if it was the only thing keeping her upright. Tears were starting to fall from her eyelids and trail down her pale cheeks. She did everything in her power not to whimper as she made her way down the hall.

The front door of the dorm came into view.

The leader gave herself one final moment to take in her former home. It was a place where she felt safe, somewhere to unwind after a long day of practice or where she could spend time with her favourite people.

But it wasn’t fair to them anymore.  
Haseul took her final steps towards the exit, unable to stop a sob from tumbling from her lips.

“Unnie?”

The distinct high-pitched voice was unmistakable.  
Haseul cursed herself from not remembering Chaewon’s tendency to stay up until sunrise.  
Instead of turning around right away, Haseul blinked the tears out of her eyes and came up with the best smile she could muster.

“I thought you’d be asleep, silly.”

It seems the blonde didn’t like having her back turned to her. Haseul heard her get up from the couch and come into view.

“I just wanted to play one more level… are you okay?” The young girl’s eyes shot wide open in surprise at the sight of the leader.

_Maybe this is a final test,_ Haseul thought bitterly.

She’d always felt so happy whenever she got to help her members…  
In this case, she was still helping her. But the foe she was saving Chaewon from was herself.

Chaewon wasn’t one to be calmed by physical affection the same way Yeojin or Yerim were. Instead, she offered an excuse: “I think I’ve been letting Jungeun show me too many K-Dramas. Don’t tell her I said this, but some of them are pretty good.”

The younger girl giggled in her shy way, hopefully accepting the reasoning.

“I'm gonna go for a walk.” Haseul told her.

“Okay unnie. See you at practice.”

It was an impulse, and by the time Haseul had registered what she had done it was too late.  
Her arms were wrapped around Chaewon, her head leaning into the crook of her neck as she trailed her hands up and down her back.

“-Unnie…” Chaewon whined, squirming underneath the touch.

But, to Haseul’s surprise, she relaxed into the embrace. Haseul couldn’t even remember the last time Chaewon had actually let someone hug her.

She wondered if Chaewon knew she was leaving. Maybe, on some level, they all knew what had to be done.  
Enjoying the hug for as long as she possibly could, Haseul could feel more tears coming on so she knew she had to cut it off. Letting go, she turned swiftly to reach for the doorknob. 

And she was out.

Finally away from the possibility of waking anyone up, Haseul let herself have a real cry.  
There were no more stray tears gently rolling down her face: only a giant mess of wet cheeks and a bright red face.

It was only fitting that she looked like a mess on the outside when everything else about her was a mess.

Miraculously, Haseul made it to the empty bus stop without bumping into anything due to her blurry vision. It wasn’t long before the bus pulled in and she filed on.

She plopped down onto a seat near the back of the bus. The dark scenery became less and less familiar as the bus rolled away.  
Haseul forgot if she managed to stop crying before she fell asleep.

x  
x  
x

“I need you to reassure me that all the preparation has been done _carefully_ , and that this contraption is going to do what’s promised.”

Sunhye was direct and straightforward: the picture of a CEO. Her dark eyes were piercing through the marketing team director in front of her.

“Of course, ma’am,” Although a little shaken by the woman, he was also confident in the invention and in his team. “You’ve placed the detection and transfer pads around the dorm, correct?”

The Blockberry CEO nodded: she’d had it done while the girls were out on schedule.

“Perfect. Now,” The marketer pulled out some sort of laser-gun looking machine that looked like it came straight from a fiction movie. That alone made her question if this was some sort of elaborate hoax.

“As promised, this contraption will boost engagement astronomically in the music videos you wanted to promote. By embedding the video with the aura of a chosen object or person, the viewer will be much more psychologically affected.”

“Right.” Sunhye pursed her lips together. “And this psychological response is accomplished by… transporting the members into their videos?”

It seemed much more bizarre coming out of her mouth. The marketing director offered a more scientific explanation, speaking on topics she didn't have much knowledge in like molecular scrambling and the resizing of atoms. 

He was very eloquent and intelligible. Sunhye was also referred to him by a trusted friend who said her ads had taken off and this invention changed her life.

“I’ll admit, we’ve not done as much testing with humans as with objects… but the times we have worked flawlessly. It only takes a few minutes at most, and they’re fast to justify the experience as a strange dream.”

“And the best time to activate it would be now, correct?”

The director nodded. “If, as you said, most of the girls if not all of them are asleep, and they’re all within the radius of the sensors… then now would be optimal.”

The CEO stood up straight, her boxy shoulder pushed back. There was a determined glint in her eye.  
“The success of my company and its employees make the risk of this unorthodox experiment worth it. You may proceed.”

Taking the giant gun in his hands, the marketer started counting down from five.

“Four… Three… Two… One.”

He pressed a button on the front of the machine, sending out a jolt of translucent lightning from the front. It made an awful buzzing noise that made Sunhye want to claw her ears out.

When she recovered from her fliching, she saw the marketer narrowing his eyes at the screen on the front of the device.

Then, he said the last two words that she wanted to come out of his mouth.

“Uh oh.”


	2. Chapter 2: Heejin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Haseul finds herself in a strange new world... and ends up in a nightmare version of Heejin's solo music video.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiii!
> 
> I got to play around a little more with imagery in this part, which was a lot of fun. This chapter includes very very mild violence, looming death(?), and intense pain experience by one of the characters.

“WHAT HAPPENED?!” Sunhye yelled, running over to look at the screen with the director. The string of letters and numbers displayed were incomprehensible to her, but the man’s nervous expression was enough to tell her something went wrong.

“Well… you see…” He stuttered, the gun shaking slightly in his hands. “With the information you provided we deduced that every single girl was within radius of the sensors… but it seems as though that wasn’t the case.”

Sunhye’s eyebrows shot up. “Impossible! The sensors were all placed correctly, and the girls should’ve all been in their dorms…”

“From the data the machine is giving me, every single video worked according to plan in the beginning. They only malfunctioned when it couldn’t detect a twelfth person needed to complete the process.”

“Who was it?!”

His eyes scanned the code once again. “The video that malfunctioned was the third on the list. So, that would be-”

“Haseul.” Sunhye finished.

_What could Haseul possibly have been doing outside of the dorm at five thirty am?_  
She was the group's leader, if anyone would have had some sense of responsibility, it should’ve been her.

“It malfunctioned… so that means the rest of the girls are still asleep, right?”

The marketing director shook his head somberly. “For the time being, they’re all stuck within the program. I’ll start work to reverse the process and free them, but in the meantime it’s important to note that I’m unsure of Haseul’s wearabouts.”

Sunhye gritted her teeth, anxiety pulsing through her body. “Unaware?”

“She could still be where she was while the other members were in the dorm… or she could have been partially transported into the program.”

It took everything in Sunhye not to completely lose it on the director.  
“Do you have any idea how bad it will look if she comes back to an empty dorm? Or worse, if she is trapped in that program forever and can’t get out?!”

The marketer gave a guilty nod.

Sunhye reached for her phone, furiously typing. “I’m going to send the managers to search for her, and then I’m going to check the dorm. You’ve better have come up with some sort of plan by the time I get back, or I will be suing you for everything you have, make no mistake about that.”

Sunhye flounced off, and the marketer set to work trying to fix the issue.

x  
x  
x

When Haseul stirred, she expected to find herself staring at the dull roof of the bus.  
The roof she was looking at was a boring grey colour, but her back was rested against a cold, hard surface and she could no longer feel herself moving.

Haseul lifted herself up, realizing she was on the floor. Panicked, she jolted upright into a standing position.

She saw that not only was the ceiling grey: the whole room around her was grey. The walls, the desk, even the potted flowers that were up on a shelf. It looked like she was in some sort of house, despite everything being the same colour as a jail cell.

_Where the heck am I?_   
_Did somebody kidnap me?_

Her heart started drumming against her chest. She had to get out of here.

Haseul quietly started towards the door, not wanting to alert anyone who might want to cause her harm that she was awake.  
The progression of rooms she made her way through were quite strange. First was a bathroom, just as grey as all of the others rooms. Next was what looked to be a bedroom, but instead of a bed there were a bunch of overflowing wardrobes and a mountain of shoes.

All of these clothing items were also a dull, bland, grey.

At this point, Haseul was seriously questioning her sanity. She blinked a few times, either to wake herself up from this crazy dream or at least to restore her ability to see colours.

Nothing changed. She was still there, trapped in an unknown building without a way to leave or any knowledge of how she got there.

The next room was, big surprise, also grey, but Haseul perked up when she noticed an old-looking phone sitting on a desk.

She slammed her fingers over the buttons, mashing ‘1-1-2’ before picking up the phone. “Hello?! Police?!”

Her reply was nothing but silence.  
Frustrated, she tried pressing the numbers to reach the medical branch to see if that would work, but nothing did.

She was about to make her way through the next door, but stopped when she heard soft breathing coming from the same direction.

Haseul suppressed a squeak, pressing herself up against the wall to hide.  
Searching the area for something to use as a weapon, she found a vase and held it in her two hands before stalking through the door.

Her hands shook slightly as she got closer and closer to the couch where the breaths were coming from.

She raised the vase over her head, ready to attack.

Then she saw who it was.

Nearly symmetrical face, hair that hit just under her ribcage… even sleeping, Haseul had spent enough time with Heejin to pick her out with only a short glance.

But it wasn’t actually her, was it?

The girl’s hair and skin were the same grey as the rest of the surroundings. For someone usually so vibrant.... Heejin looked lifeless.

The sight was too much for Haseul to handle. She screamed, the vase slipping out of her hands and dropping to the floor.

At the piercing noise of shattering glass, Heejin shot up from her spot on the couch. Now that she was awake, Haseul noticed the intense dark circles under the girl’s eyes. It was so bad that at first she thought they were mascara stains.

But it wasn’t something that could just be wiped away. It was the only part of her skin that wasn’t a sickly grey, and honestly the grey looked better than the giant tar-looking bags on her under-eyes. 

“H-Heejin?” Haseul was still scared, gaining a pounding headache from how confused she was. “What happened to you? Where are we?”

The only response Haseul got was a blood-piercing scream coming from the girl.

Heejin started convulsing, almost as if she was being shocked by electricity. She held her head in her hands, curling herself up into a small ball on the couch.

The leader fought the urge to cover her ears, thinking it was more important to comfort Heejin through this pain that she was apparently experiencing. Stepping over the broken glass on the floor, she sat on the couch and reached for the younger girl’s hand.  
“What’s going on? How can I help?”

Heejin’s voice was intensely strained. Through gritted teeth, she said, “I-it hurts, unnie-”

Haseul went to wrap her arms around her, but was interrupted by a blaring sound coming seemingly out of nowhere. This time, Haseul couldn’t stop herself from slapping her hands over her ears and flinching wildly. 

While she was recoiling from the awful noise, Heejin stood up.  
Then, she noticed what the sound was.

“Say oh my god yes-”

Heejin’s voice, pretty as always and the only familiar thing in this strange place, sang along to the string of noise that Haseul could barely make out as the backing track to Heejin’s solo song.

It sounded nothing like ViViD: it would randomly speed up and slow down, the pitch would constantly change to ear-shatteringly high or so low that the bass would physically hurt.

And even with all of that, Heejin started doing the choreo.

Haseul was too stunned to speak.

_What is she doing?_

Her eyes trailed down to the dress Heejin was wearing. While it was still grey, just the same as everything else, she noticed the vertical stripes on the chest and saw that the cut looked oddly familiar.

It was the same one she’d worn for the music video.

Everything clicked.  
The strange surroundings looked exactly like the set of her solo, only without colour (ironically enough). But that still didn’t explain how the hell they’d ended up here, why Heejin was grey, or how to get out of this nightmare.

Honestly, that was the only plausible explanation for all of this.  
That this was some sort of nightmare.  
But then why was Haseul in so much pain? Why did everything feel so real? Why couldn’t she wake up, no matter how hard she tried?

Heejin’s sweet voice quickly turned hoarse. She struggled through the second verse, before her legs buckled from beneath her and she started falling towards the floor.

“Heejin!” The older girl yelled, jumping off the couch and wrapping her arms around Heejin’s middle to stabilize her. She went limp in her arms.

As soon as she passed out, the music stopped.

It was times like this where having Hyunjin’s strength would be useful. Haseul couldn’t really pick her up, so she clunkily dragged her backwards to lay her back down on the couch.

Haseul examined the girl from above. She looked like some sort of wind-up doll, one who’d been twisted too tight and then reverted back to a state of stiffness after performing. 

A shiver ran down the leader’s spine. It was all too real and too much, she didn’t want to see Heejin in so much pain…

When Haseul noticed the wall turning a rich black, she was almost thankful for the break from all of the grey.  
But then the wall started melting.

It oozed in on itself like an oil spill, until the shade evaporated and the space was converted into emptiness.  
Haseul blinked, confused. 

_The house is collapsing?_

Her worries were exacerbated ten times over when the floor started darkening as well.

Panicked, Haseul shook her friend’s shoulders. “Heejin-ah! We have to get out of here!”

She stayed stationary, like an unmoving puppet.  
It was up to Haseul to move her.

Once again, the leader threw her arms around Heejin’s waist and guided her off the couch. Now that adrenaline was truly coursing through her body, it was easier to drag her through the door to the office room before carefully lowering her to the ground.

The ink stopped just short of the entrance, seeping through the floor and destroying it as if it was lava.

Haseul was terrified. She was confused out of her mind, she had no idea what to make of this grey horror house and didn’t know how to fix things.

_Will Heejin and I disappear too?_

A little choked up, Haseul called out, “Heejinie, please wake up… I’m scared…”

This time, when Heejin came to, it wasn’t a jolt. Her eyes fluttered open and she slowly sat up. 

However, the circles under her eyes started dripping down her face, leaving a trail of black tears down her cheeks.

A low whine came from the girl’s lips, it’s volume gradually getting louder. “It hurts, unnie… it hurts!”

“What hurts, Heejin?” Haseul was desperate at this point. Not wanting to get interrupted again, she swung her arms around the girl’s shoulder. It was a half hug, half let’s-keep-Heejin-from-fainting-again-by-holding-her-still.

This wasn’t the right response.

“NO!” Heejin screeched, trying to shake Haseul off. She ended up shouldering the leader in the jaw, who backed up and clutched her sore jaw in her hands.

“Can’t stop… can’t… stop-” Heejin seethed.

Haseul cried out when the awful music started again.

“Maeil nae mamsok flash bitnadeon rainbow-”

Haseul was at a loss of what to do. This cycle couldn’t keep repeating itself! Heejin was being consumed by whatever the black stuff was, which also happened to be destroying the area around them. If Heejin wouldn’t let her help, then how could she get her to stop?

First, the leader tried explaining. Maybe this version of Heejin could be reasoned with?

“Heejin, you don’t understand… this place that we’re in, it’s going to disappear and we’re going to disappear with it if you don’t quit your performance!”

This didn’t get her to stop, but it allowed Haseul to register the intense pain in the girl’s eyes. It was as if she didn’t want to be doing this either, but was being forced to…

With how much pain she seemed to be in, she couldn’t imagine this was pleasant for the girl even if she had a violent freak-out seconds earlier. 

When Heejin collapsed for the second time, Haseul wasted no time dragging her into the next room which was the empty bedroom.   
To Haseul’s horror, the black was creeping in from the other side of the house as well. Soon, there’d be no room left for them.

Haseul needed a plan. 

_The space shrinks whenever Heejin is unconscious, right? I can’t let her knock herself out again. But she’s not going to let me stop her… or was it the way I approached it?_

It was a long shot, but she was out of options at this point.  
Heejin woke up once again, looking more like a ghost than a human being.

Even before she could start talking about her pain like she’d done the two previous times, Haseul stood up and started performing ViViD herself.

She started from the bridge, and although she knew the lyrics like the back of her hand, she was less confident in her ability to execute the choreography.

Heejin blinked up at her friend from her place on the floor. 

“Shireo bicheul ireun naege,” Haseul took the brief pause before the music picked up to say, “I’ll perform. You take a break.”

Thankfully, since the horrible excuse for music only played when Heejin was singing, the leader could hear the younger girl’s quiet response. “But you can’t - I have to-”

Haseul was admittedly playing with fire, but she stopped singing so that she could keep conversing with Heejin. She kept dancing, hopefully to appease whatever forces were controlling this nightmare.  
“Why do you have to?’

Her response came out in a stutter. “I-It’s my job… I can’t let anyone down…”

Tears started trailing down Heejin’s cheeks. Except, the tears cleared away the black oily substance that was taking over her face.

This pushed Haseul to keep talking.

“Heejinie, you’d never let anyone down for taking a break. Nobody wants you to get hurt, and you’re in a lot of pain right now.” 

Haseul gasped as she noticed Heejin’s hair reverting back to it’s beautiful brown.   
She sniffled. “Y-you really think that?”

Haseul found it within herself to crouch down to Heejin’s level. “I don’t think: I know. You are so much more than the things you do for others. You work really hard, and you need to remember that you’re human.”  
For a second, Heejin just stared, her watery brown eyes looking directly into Haseul’s.  
Then, she broke down.

Heejin launched herself into Haseul’s arms, sobbing into the older girl’s shoulder. Haseul did her best to soothe her, rubbing comforting circles into her back and running her fingers through her brown locks.

“I’ve got you, Heejinie…”

Haseul felt her heart pounding, but it was less from the anxiety-inducing situation and more from the love she felt for the girl in front of her. It was a really great feeling to be helping Heejin in this way. It made her think about how hard the girl pushed herself to be the best she could, and never stopped to take a second for herself.

Maybe she should have these moments with Heejin more often.

Haseul felt a pang of energy pulse through her body. This made her momentarily pull away from her friend.

Right before her eyes, Haseul watched the greys in the room fade away. They were replaced by pretty reds and purples and blues all swirling together, the walls and furniture now more colorful than ever.

It was nice to have normal looking surroundings again, but what truly made the leader happy was watching Heejin transform right in front of her eyes. Her dress turned into it’s familiar red, her skin no longer sickly-looking and her eyes no longer holding intense pain. She was the Jeon Heejin Haseul knew: one of the most lively people she’d ever met.

Everything felt right again.

“We did it!” Haseul smiled.

Heejin blinked a few times, clearing the tears from her vision. She tilted her head questioningly.

“Haseul unnie?”

And then everything went black.


	3. Chapter 3: Hyunjin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A pattern reveals itself as Haseul and Heejin wake up in an unfamiliar version of Tokyo.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, it's been a little while :)
> 
> This chapter includes discussions of unhealthy productivity. I really need to give Heejin a break, I'm sorry :(
> 
> Also BBC where the heck are the pre-order links

“Haseul unnie, wake up!”

The sleeping girl felt her shoulder being repeatedly tapped, causing her to finally open her eyes. She was welcomed to the image of Heejin’s concerned face as she knelt over her.

Immediately, a sharp stinging pain jolted through her neck. If the hard floor of the grey house-prison was bad, then this was ten times worse than that. 

“W-what? Where…” 

Haseul rubbed her eyes, able to see Heejin more clearly as she got out of her kneeling position. She wasn’t wearing her music video outfit anymore: in its place was a pink and white plaid dress that hit her mid thigh.

Also, much more importantly, they happened to be having this exchange _in the middle of the freaking sidewalk._

A step up from the demon house, Haseul supposed.

The leader stood up and dusted herself off, realizing that she wasn’t wearing the same thing either.

Granted, Haseul had been too preoccupied to notice what clothes she had on while she was trying to save Heejin from the black substance of death, but when she fell asleep on the bus she was definitely not wearing a jade-coloured dress with long sleeves.

“I wasn’t wearing this before…?”

Heejin shook her head. “I’m just as lost as you.”

Haseul took a second to just awkwardly blink at the younger member. After feeling so alone in the nightmarish ViViD set, she almost couldn’t believe that this Heejin seemed so real. 

“It’s really you, Heejin-ah?”

The girl smiled softly. “I can tell you for a fact that I’m me, even if none of this feels real.” Her smile faltered as she got towards the end of her sentence.

Haseul’s eyebrows furrowed, sensing the discomfort emitting from the younger girl. “What do you remember?” 

Heejin shifted uncomfortably at the question. “All of it. The grey set, the awful noises… I thought it was a nightmare, and that I would wake up, but that never happened. It hurt so much, and the worst part was that I couldn’t get myself to move. It was like something else was controlling me. Like I was a puppet.”

The girl shivered as she recounted the memory, her eyes turning regretful. “I’m sorry that I hit you in the face. It wasn’t me, but it was me, I guess… I don’t know how to explain it.”

“No, don’t apologize. I don’t blame you, Heejinie.” The last thing Heejin needed to do was apologize for having to live through that traumatic experience. “This whole thing has been strange, and I don’t think I’ll fully understand how it felt for you since I wasn’t in your place. I’m just glad you’re safe now.”

Even if Heejin was back to being herself, it was clear that she was affected by what happened. She held herself tightly, and seemed much more reserved than usual.

It broke Haseul’s heart.

“I know we’re both confused right now. But I want to let you know that I’m here if you want to talk about it, and I meant everything that I said back there.”

Heejin was normally so untouchable, and this vulnerable side of her was something Haseul rarely got to see. If nothing else, she could be there to support her through this hellscape they were in.

“Do you have any idea where we are if this isn’t some kind of dream?” Haseul changed the subject, hoping that it would relax the girl after the loaded conversation, “What was the last thing you remember?”

“The last thing I remember was falling asleep in the dorm. How about you, what’s the last thing you did before this happened?”

Haseul sucked in a breath, unprepared for this question. If Heejin was still asleep by morning, that meant that she didn’t realize she had run away…  
It wasn’t something to unpack with her right now. Not when they were trapped on a random sidewalk in a nightmare world, and especially not when Heejin already had enough on her plate.

“I was asleep too.” Was what the leader ended up telling her. It was _technically_ true: she had been asleep. Just on a bus instead of in the dorm room.

Minor details.

“Well, if we both ended up in the set of my music video for whatever reason, I have a feeling I know where we are now…”

Haseul took in the landscape. If Heejin was referring to what Haseul thought she was, their surroundings did undoubtedly look a lot like Tokyo. It felt a little off, though: two-dimensional almost.

_At least there are actually colours here._

If Heejin thought it was Hyunjin’s music video, the leader believed her. She had flown out to Hong Kong with her classmate to film it after all.

“Do you think it’s just us?” Haseul asked tentatively, “Or do you think… Hyunjin-ah…”

Heejin averted her eyes. “I don’t know.” As inseparable as the two were, the leader doubted that she wanted her friend in the same position that she was just in. “I think we should just try and find a way out of this place.”

Haseul agreed, and the two set off down the street to find any clues as to how to leave this cursed place.

As they walked, it became clear why Haseul why this place felt so flat. The streets, sidewalks and parks were completely deserted, making Hong Kong seem like some sort of creepy ghost town. Aside from the occasional pigeon flying away and scaring the two girls, the city was still.

Despite this, the scenery was amazing (probably because there was more to look at then just grey, which Haseul decided was a colour she could go the rest of her life without seeing again). 

The murals done on a few brick walls were painted with intricate, bold strokes. There were some planters around, one with pretty purple flowers that Haseul would’ve stopped to get a better look at if they weren’t on a mission. The street signs seemed out of place because of the lack of humans in the general vicinity.

After a while, Heejin halted dead in her tracks, Haseul barely able to stop herself before barreling into her back.

“Wait, didn’t we pass that building a few minutes ago?”

Haseul inspected where Heejin was pointing. She recognized walking by it moments earlier, making a mental note of the peach windows that were reminiscent of a sunset. It was very distinct, but maybe sunset-windows were just common in this part of Tokyo…?

That theory was quickly squandered when she noticed a planter full of violets a few feet ahead sitting right next to a no parking sign. On the other side of the street, multicoloured shapes were painted on the side of a restaurant.

The leader shook her head in disbelief at her surroundings. “Everything around us is the same. Are we in some sort of loop?”

“There has to be a way out of this place...” Her eyes darted everywhere, searching for an escape.

Before Haseul could interject, Heejin grabbed her by the hand and pulled her towards another one of the buildings. This one stood tall and white, looming over the city (or at least what little part of the city actually existed).

“Wait, Heejin-ah,” Haseul tried to keep up with the younger girl, “You think she’s in here?”

She didn’t look back to answer, only kept darting towards the large glass doors. “It kind of looks like a place that we filmed. It’s worth a shot.”

They arrived inside, the both of them calling Hyunjin’s name to search for her. The building seemed like some sort of hotel, with a large reception desk and random luggage carts strewn about on the main floor. Usually, a place like this would be bustling, but it was completely devoid of any other human occupation.

It felt apocalyptic.

They ran up staircases and down hallways in their effort to track Hyunjin. Heejin was very hard to keep up with, and it didn’t seem like she was slowing down anytime soon.

Finally leaving the hotel didn’t give much of a chance to breathe either. Heejin made a beeline for what looked like a separate room attached to the hotel. The outside was bare, which didn’t give much hope that there would be anything of interest inside.

But once Heejin got the door open, the girls were greeted to a familiar sight. There was a carpet on the ground, a curtain blowing delicately in the wind provided by a slightly open window.  
Haseul gasped when she noticed something round the corner on the other side of the room.

“Heejinie!” She chirped excitedly, stepping forward. “It’s the scene from the music video! The cats are still here!”

The cat got on the carpet and stretched, quickly taking notice of Haseul gaping excitedly at it. The animal wasted no time rolling onto its belly. Haseul chuckled, giving and petting it. There was another cat swatting at the flowing curtain, and one came up to the leader and brushed itself against her leg.

_At least this isn't all an awful nightmare._

The cats were a welcome distraction from this weird situation they were in.

Heejin, however, did not seem to think so.

“Hyunjin?” She called for her friend, making a point to look behind every individual piece of furniture.

Haseul pulled away from the animals, giving the cat near her feet one last pet, her fingers running through its pale fur.

It made sense that Heejin wouldn’t want to engage with the animals right now, but that didn’t make it any less jarring. Heejin was so great with them; Haseul was convinced that she would’ve been a veterinarian if she hadn’t debuted with Loona.

But they had a job to do, so she didn’t dwell on it too much. 

They left the room, the younger girl continuing to call for Hyunjin and Haseul following suit. They went into other buildings to search, and this time Haseul had less time to focus on how utterly empty everything was and spent more of it trying to keep up with the evidently more athletic Heejin.

As Haseul grew more tired, Heejin only seemed to gain more energy. Her yells got louder, her steps got faster, and her feet were in perpetual movement. 

“Maybe she’s on the other side-” Heejin pointed to the road separated from them by a set of buildings. She scanned the area, looking for a way to get to it.

“The fence!” She suddenly exclaimed, and a look of horror washed over Haseul’s face at the idea of _having to scale a giant chain-link fence to get across the road._

There was no way.

“Heejin-ah,” Haseul interjected, always trailing behind her, “There could be another way across… there’s an alley, right there!”

Haseul was hoping that pointing it out would convince her friend to take a second to think, but Heejin only nodded and rushed off to the alley in question. 

_Is this a residual effect from her own music video nightmare?_

The leader couldn’t tell for sure: all she knew was that she was starting to worry, especially after what happened last time Heejin insisted she keep going.

The younger girl started talking in clipped, panicked sentences as they made their way into the alley.

“She has to be over there, right?”

“It’s the only place we haven’t checked…”

“We have to find her-”

“Heejin-ah, stop. Please.”  
Haseul’s words jolted the younger girl out of her rushed state, finally turning around to face her.

“We can’t keep this up. I need a break… and so do you.”

Heejin tightened at the word break. Haseul sensed her discomfort, and slowly laced her hands with Heejin’s.

“Let’s sit for a second, okay?”

She guided her friend towards the brick wall enclosing them in the alley. They sat crossed-legged on the hard ground. It wasn’t exactly the comfiest place, but Haseul’s legs were thanking her for the rest either way.

The two of them caught their breath together, Heejin finally noticing the toll all of the running had taken on her body.

“Unnie-” Heejin spoke up tentatively, her voice strained, “What if we don’t find her?”

“... If we don’t find Hyunjin?” Haseul continued as softly as possible to help comfort the younger girl, “I’m not sure. We don’t even know if she’s here with us. But I found you last time, yeah? If this place wants us to find Hyunjin, then I’m sure we will.”

“I… I don’t want her to have the same experience I had. I thought, if we could find her fast…”

Heejin was trying to hide it, but Haseul didn’t miss how she was blinking rapidly to clear tears out of her eyes.

Haseul looped an arm around the younger girl, who rested her head on the leader’s shoulder.

“I’ve always struggled with my productivity, feeling like I’m not worth anything if I’m not working.” She continued tentatively, sobs breaking the sentence every few words. “Hyunjin was the only person I ever talked about it with. It’s like this place knew it was my biggest fear. What if Hyunjin is going through her biggest fear right now?”

It was… hard, to think about Hyunjin suffering right at that moment, especially after seeing first-hand how much Heejin’s experience affected her.

“I’m sorry to hear you struggle with that. It can’t be easy, and I’m happy you had Hyunjin there to help you through it.” The leader pulled Heejin closer, “As much as she cares about you, I know you care about her just as much. I know she knows that too, and she wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself trying to find her. What would she tell you if she were here?”

Heejin lifted her head, some of the tears dissipating as a smile tugged at her lips. “She’d say: Heejinie, stop for a second and come eat some bread with me.”

The leader let out a light-hearted laugh, pushing away some of the brown hair that had fallen in front of her friend’s face. “That sounds like her. And she would never blame you for any of this: wherever we are, it’s not your fault that we’re here and we’re going to find a way out.”

Maybe Haseul didn’t know for sure if they would get out of this strange purgatory.  
She did know one of her members was upset, and it was her responsibility to make them feel better.

Swiping the last stray tears off of her cheeks, Heejin smiled. “Thank you, unnie.”

They stayed like that for a few minutes, Haseul wanting for her friend to relax fully before continuing on their search. The silence that passed between them allowed for faint meowing sounds to be heard.

Heejin’s eyes shot open. “Look!”

Haseul followed her gaze to the other side of the alley, where she spotted a ball of light fur at the foot of the chain link fence tangled in foliage. She got up to investigate, helping Heejin to her feet so she could take a look as well.

“Is it stuck?” Heejin asked as they approached.

The meowing certainly made it sound like the animal was in distress. Sure enough, when they got to the fence, they noticed that it had a spindly vine from a nearby plant wrapped around its body. 

“Poor thing.” Heejin frowned, “it must’ve been trying to get under.”

Haseul knelt down, grabbing the bottom of the loose section of chain and lifted the fence as high as she could. This let Heejin reach under to untangle the branch and set the cat free.

It rushed under the fence as soon as it was able to move again, brushing itself up against Heejin’s leg and purring affectionately. Smiling, the younger girl scratched under its neck in reply. “All better?”

Apparently so, because the cat started running wildly in between Heejin’s legs and then Haseul’s. The two girls laughed, watching as the cat booked it out of the other side of the alley. 

“You know, it kind of looks like the same cat that was in the room,” It’s pale fur was a perfect match to the one she’d pet earlier, but she couldn’t tell for sure. There was no guessing how many cats lived in (fake) Tokyo.  
Heejin didn’t reply, only narrowing her eyes towards where the animal ran off to.  
“Unnie… this might sound crazy, but it looks like the cat’s waiting for us.”

Glancing off in the distance, the cat was lingering at the end of the alley. Her theory was basically confirmed when it started meowing at them.

Heejin and Haseul both glanced at each other, puzzled.

_What have we got to lose?_

And so, the two set off, following the cat as it ran down the empty street. Haseul knew that realistically this was probably some sort of wild goose chase, but it’s not like they had any other leads on how to get out of this place.

It led them into another skyscraper, leaping up a few flights of stairs agilily before stopping in front of an apartment door. It started scratching at the door with its yellow paws.

Heejin twisted the doorknob open, and the pair was immediately greeted to a familiar sound.

“Hey you~”

The song was slightly static, playing from a radio on a table in the middle of the room. Heejin’s eyes bulged in shock.

“Hyunjin?”

Heejin did a frantic search of the space. It didn’t take long since it was so small, but the results weren’t what they’d been hoping for. It was still just her and Heejin, alone in this strange place.

And the cat…

The animal hopped up onto a wooden chair, pawing at something on the table. It’s meowing got Heejin to stop her futile search and turn back towards the noise.

The cat launched a beaded bracelet off of the table. It skidded against the floor, ending up at Heejin’s feet. She blinked a few times, bending down and picking it up in confusion. 

Haseul, who’d already begun to piece things together, tried to form some sort of coherent response in her dumbfounded state.  
“... This is all from the music video… the yellow cat is, too….”  
The younger girl froze. She turned the bracelet around to examine it, glancing between the cat and the object in her hands.  
“You’re right.” She finally responded after a few beats.

Jumping off of the chair, the cat walked up to Heejin and sat directly in front of her.

“Hyunjin…? Is that you?”

She said it like she knew her words were completely nuts.

Which they were.

The cat titled it’s head to the side, purring softly. Heejin looked over to the leader for advice on _what the heck you’re supposed to do when you think your best friend is a cat._

“She wanted you to have the bracelet, right? Maybe try doing something with it.” Was all Haseul had to offer.

She played with the beads in her fingers for a few moments before finally acting. Reaching towards the animal, Heejin delicately placed the bracelet around its neck as if it were a collar. At first, nothing happened and Haseul wondered if her assumption that the cat was Hyunjin was a sign that she’d really lost her marbles.

But then, a rush of energy punched Haseul in the chest much like it had on the ViViD set. Heejin seemed to have felt it too, crossing her arms over her torso to keep herself from falling over.

The animal disappeared, replaced only by a golden outline that shifted into one of a person. The gold got so bright that it forced Haseul to look away.

When she looked back, Hyunjin’s familiar face was staring back at them.

“Heejinie!”

Hyunjin ran up to her friend, wrapping her into a hug as if she was clinging on for dear life. From this angle, Haseul could see the girl’s wet cheeks.

“That was awful,” She cleared her slightly hoarse throat, either from the tears, or being a cat, or both, “I couldn’t help, because you didn’t know it was me…”

If Hyunjin looked like she would be stuck to Heejin for a while, Heejin looked like she was never letting go. “You didn’t need to help me, we were trying to help you.”

Hyunjin pressed herself into her friend’s shoulder. “I could feel how scared you were for me and how much you were hurting, but I was stuck as a cat and couldn’t get to you until you found me in the room…. I was chasing you guys around, but you didn’t stop running until Haseul unnie sat with you in the alley. All I wanted was to help you feel better.”

Heejin laughed into the crook of Hyunjin’s neck, getting a bit emotional herself. “Haseul unnie helped me. I’m happy that I have you now.”

The mention of the leader’s name was what got Hyunjin to pull away. “Unnie!”  
This time, it was Haseul who was tackled into a hug.  
But she didn’t mind, not one bit.

“I’m glad you’re back to normal,” She said into the younger girl’s ear, “Even if knowing that shape shifting is possible in this world is kind of unsettling.”

After the two shared their own hug, Heejin got down to business. “Do you know where we are or how we got here?”

Hyunjin’s lips curled down into a slight pout as she shook her head. “I got woken up by Vivi unnie this morning. She wanted to know where you went, unnie.”

When Hyunjin pointed at her, Haseul froze.

“I told her the last time I saw you was when we went to bed, and that I hadn’t been up during the night. She left the room with a letter between her hands. Before I could get ready and follow her to ask what was going on, everything went black.”

The younger girl gazed down at Haseul. “Where did you go? She seemed worried about you.”

Heejin looked confused as well, probably because Haseul had told her the last thing she’d done was slept.

Still technically true. She just omitted to tell her that she’d run away in the middle of the night.

Not wanting to talk about this right now the leader turned to Heejin and changed the subject. “Are we going to get transported away again, like what happened earlier?”

Heejin deflated. “I don’t know… but if we’re stuck in some sort of cycle with our music videos, I think it means you’re next unnie.”

“What?”

The thought of having to face her worst fears made Haseul want to vomit. The only thing worse than that was having her members figure out what those fears were, and that was sure to happen if the pattern continued.

“No-”

Her words were cut off by the world going black around her.


	4. Chapter 4: Yeojin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pattern of music videos breaks, skipping over Haseul in favour of joining a certain maknae instead. There, they meet their strangest opponent yet...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very fluffy! I live for the fluff.
> 
> Very mild cartoon violence, and there's some hinting at the implications of joining the entertainment industry at a young age.
> 
> Also can we talk about how freaking amazing that teaser was, I'm obsessed. I'm so hyped for the comeback/concert

When Haseul woke up this time, she was relieved to not feel the sharp sting of a stone cold floor or rough concrete against her back.

If this comfortable place was supposed to be her nightmare, then she would take it, thank you very much.

She forced her eyes open. The first thing she noticed was the fluffy white blanket resting on top of her. Turning her head to the left gave her a glimpse of Hyunjin’s face half-hidden by a pillow, and turning her head to the right earned her a face full of Heejin’s brown hair. 

Finding herself in bed sandwiched between the two younger members made her want to roll over and fall back asleep. It was the safest she’d felt in a while, not that the bar was very high   
after being in a melting prison-house and a ghost town.

Or after running away from her group, terrified that they would never speak to her again.

Haseul let herself sink deeper into the mattress, collecting her thoughts. She couldn’t hide the fact that she’d run away forever: Heejin probably already gathered that something was off, and it would only be a matter of time until Vivi told them what she’d written in the letter.

The leader curled in on herself.   
_I wasn’t supposed to be here when they found out..._

She needed more time to figure out how to word things before confronting them directly. All she could do was hope that they’d be too busy trying to get out of this place then to dwell on anything too much. 

Besides, this was probably all some crazy dream anyways. Hyunjin turned into a cat for crying out loud! No matter how real this all felt, shapeshifting is pushing it a little far.

…. Right?

“Unnie?”

Hyunjin rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, sitting up in bed.

“Good morning,” Haseul hummed, quickly adding: “I’m jealous you get to wake up in an actual bed instead of in the middle of the street.”

Hyunjin started laughing, which only served to irritate Haseul further.  
“Hey! It’s not funny! My back really hurts!”

To the leader’s dismay, this didn’t get her to stop. “It’s kind of funny. Besides, I think waking up as a cat feels much stranger than waking up on some rocks.”

_Fair point._

Hyunjin gestured to the girl who was still asleep, changing the subject.   
“Is Heejin waking up?”

She hadn’t stirred once, even after Hyunjin started laughing at the older girl (loudly, might Haseul add).  
“I don’t know. She’s had a pretty rough go at it, even before we got sent into that fake Tokyo place. Let’s give her a few minutes.”

Haseul’s own logic let her relax for a bit longer as well, so she was not complaining.

She reached over to run her fingers through Heejin’s curly brown hair as she slept. As she did this, she felt Hyunjin rest her head against her back.

It felt… really nice. It’d been a while since they’d had a moment like this just the three of them. Haseul’s mind wandered to filming The Carol in London with the two younger girls. After shooting all day in heels, they all collapsed onto the nearest bed which happened to be Heejin’s.

They were exhausted, but it didn’t stop them from goofing off well into the morning. Haseul tried to be responsible and urged them to stop giggling about things that weren’t even that funny.  
Of course, when the three went silent and it looked like they were finally about to fall asleep, they’d all break out into laughter again.

It was too easy to be comfortable with Heejin and Hyunjin.

She let herself enjoy the feeling of Hyunjin snuggling into her and of Heejin’s soft hair between her fingers for as long as possible.

A few minutes later, Haseul noticed Heejin’s eyes fluttering open.   
“Hey,” She smiled, continuing to stroke the girl’s hair, “How are you feeling?”

“...Warm.” Her already deep voice was still a little groggy from sleeping, “I thought we’d wake up in a snowbank this time.”

Heejin pushed herself up, causing Haseul to (regretfully) pull away and sit up with her. Hyunjin followed suit.

“Where are we?” Heejin glanced around at her surroundings, blinking rapidly to clear her vision.

Haseul had been thinking too much about the running away situation and reminiscing too much about London that she hadn’t even figured out the answer to that yet. Luckily, Hyunjin had been more astute and answered the question.

“It looks like Yeojin-ah’s music video. I guess we skipped one.”

The leader felt two sets of eyes fall on her.  
 _Great._

“I have no idea why it skipped me, or why I was in Heejin’s nightmare with her for that matter. This whole thing is surreal.” She tried to explain.

_Is it really because I ran away? Is this some sort of retribution? Or is it because I’m their leader?_

_Was their leader...._

“Unnie, where were you this morning?” Hyunjin tried asking again.

Haseul had to come clean, at least with some of the information. She didn’t know how long the members had been searching for her, but she would probably have a hard time convincing them that she went to bed in the broom closet.

“I… I wasn’t in the dorm this morning.” Haseul confessed, focusing her gaze on the white sheets instead of on the two girls beside her. “I went out. Chaewon saw me leave.”

“Where did you go? I thought you said you were asleep…”

Hearing Heejin’s voice fade into disappointment made a lump form in Haseul’s throat.

“I did fall asleep while I was out, that part is true. It’s all just… complicated, and I don’t know if now is the best time to discuss things when we have to figure out if Yeojin-ah needs our help.”

Haseul didn’t know if the subject would be dropped so easily, but the sound of screaming coming from the hallway interrupted their conversation.

It wasn’t a true blood-piercing scream, but it was a series of faint yells. They slowly got louder, along with the sounds of heels clicking down the hall.  
The three intently watched the doorway to see if someone would run past. Sure enough, they all got a glimpse of a short figure rushing away, her white dress swooshing behind her as she yelped.

And Haseul swears that a few moments later, a much taller green figure rushed past as well. They weren’t running so much as hopping along, chasing after the smaller girl.

Blinking a few times, the leader checked to see if she was truly going crazy. “You guys saw that too, right?”

Because nothing made sense in the nightmare world, the two nodded their heads in confirmation.

_Of course. Because melting walls and transforming into animals wasn’t enough._

Granted, Haseul hadn’t gotten the best look at the green person because they were jumping away from the doorway. From what she did see, he looked rubbery, gummy almost.

All she did know for sure was that the loud yells definitely belonged to Yeojin. 

“... So, I guess the frog isn’t a ballerina wearing a mask in the place…” Hyunjin broke the silence, offering an awkward laugh.

“This happened in Kiss Later, right? The frog was chasing Yeojin-ah?” Heejin asked.

Haseul flipped the blanket off of herself, sliding off of the bed from the front. She briefly registered that she was wearing pyjamas patterned with doves before turning to the younger members.

“I guess we should go after them? Like we’ve been doing in the other nightmares?”

Even if this place seemed much less nightmare-like than the two previous locations, the pattern was clear at this point. Each of these experiences was tied to the psyche of the member, and it was putting them through uncomfortable experiences.

Haseul didn’t want Yeojin to be here for any longer than she had to.

The two agreed, slipping off of the bed themselves.

The three made their way out of the bedroom and down the left side of the hall, following after the duo. They passed through a kitchen that Haseul recognized from the music video, then past a curtained room that she remembered Yeojin doing the choreo in.

As they continued, the realistic feel to the house slowly got more and more whimsical. There was a room that looked a bit like a theatre, complete with a puppet-show set and a grand piano.  
Finally, the three entered a room that was completely dark, safe for a single table illuminated in the center. It was impossible to tell how big it was since they couldn’t see any walls, and there weren’t even any visible light fixtures on the ceiling.

How could they see the table in the middle of the room then? Haseul figured the explanation was somewhere with the ones detailing how shapeshifting is possible now or that giant frog-people exist.

“Guys-”

Hyunjin squinted into the darkness, her hand pointing forward. Haseul followed her gaze, barely able to make out a distant figure.

Just the faint look alone wasn’t enough to place who it was, but the strange jumping noises tipped them off to the fact that it was the frog. It sounded like a cartoon spring, making the sound everytime it hopped.

It started jumping closer to them. This let Haseul get a better look at its oversized head and large pink lips. It was wearing a dapper purple suit over its body. But this frog’s skin wasn’t made out of plush like it had been in the music video. It looked tacky and stretchy, like some sort of taffy.

It didn’t look like something that should exist in real life, yet here it was. A giant, unsettling frog-man. 

Heejin spoke up, nervously calling out to the humanoid-animal. “Um, hi there… Can you hear me, mister frog?”

Even Hyunjin was too dumbfounded to laugh at the situation. 

The frog jumped along, either not able to understand Heejin or just straight up ignoring her. 

That’s when Haseul noticed the tablecloth draped over the tabe move slightly. When it moved a second time, she made out the outline of a hand.

She inched herself closer to her friends, who were still watching the giant frog casually jump around the dark room.   
“I think Yeojin might be hiding under the table…” The leader whispered, careful not to alert the frog.

“What do we do?” Hyunjin whispered back.

Honestly, Haseul hadn’t made it that far.

_If I go over and rip the tablecloth off, will the frog just go and attack her again? That’s not even taking into account if this version of Yeojin is like the nightmare version of Heejin. I don’t want my approach to make things worse like I did in ViViD._

The frog hadn’t been idle while Haseul had her whirlwind of thoughts. It made its way over to the table, pausing momentarily in front of it.

Then, it’s long, slobbery pink tongue jetted from its mouth and wrapped around the table cloth. When it’s tongue retracted, the tablecloth was pulled off and it flew off into the dark side of the room.

How are you supposed to not scream when that happens?

Heejin, Hyunjin and Haseul all shrieked. Heejin burrowed herself into her best friend, while Haseul felt Hyunjin’s hand gripping onto her arm.  
But their three voices were joined with a fourth, equally-panicked scream.

“NO!” Yeojin yelled as she squirmed out from under the table. She quickly stood up, pressing her tiara against her head so that it wouldn’t fall off. Strands had fallen from her ponytail making her hair look disheveled. “STOP! I’M NOT READY!”

The maknae bunched up her white dress in her hands, making a break for the door. The frog followed after her, matching her pace with its hops.

“Wait!” Haseul started following after them, waving her hands wildly to get the frog to quit chasing Yeojin.

She halted in the doorway when she saw it had no intentions of doing so and when she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up with them.

Hyunjin and Heejin ran to Haseul’s sides, glancing out of the doorway pessimistically. 

“We need a plan.” Heejin offered after a while of silence.

Haseul was at a loss for this situation. The two other nightmares had been solved out of random guessing and sheer luck. This time was no exception to her mindlessness.

“Does anyone know how to stop a giant cartoon frog?” Haseul asked sheepishly.

….

“Flies?”

Heejin and Haseul both looked at Hyunjin, who seemed dead serious about her answer.

“...I think, since talking to the frog didn’t work… it might be the reverse of what happened with you, Heejin-ah.” Haseul explained, “Instead of reasoning with it, we’re gonna have to physically restrain so that we can help Yeojinie.”

None of them seemed thrilled about having to attack a frog, especially one with a tongue that it could fling around, but it was looking like their only option at this point. 

Heejin took a deep breath before giving a determined nod. Hyunjin rolled up the sleeves of her pyjama top before nodding as well.

They made their way back through the bright house, following the distant yelling and spring noises. This led them back into the kitchen. 

The frog swung its arms towards Yeojin, who ducked underneath them. She pulled a wire garbage can onto its side to create a barrier between her and the animal.

“Get away!” Her tone lied somewhere between a yelp and a whine.

Hyunjin lept into action, running up behind the frog to wrap her arms around its torso. Before she could, the frog hopped over the bin and out of reach.

More screaming erupted from Yeojin, who continued running down the hall towards the bedroom. The frog chased after her, the other three following behind it. Heejin was in the back of the manically running group, seeming to have lingered in the kitchen to grab something.

Yeojin ducked into one of the bedrooms, able to wedge herself under the tight space between the floor and the bed. The frog knelt down to lunge after her.

“Leave her alone!”

A box of cereal launched from Heejin’s hands and went flying across the room, hitting the frog square in the head. It didn’t look like it hurt it: all it did was surprise it enough to allow Hyunjin to grab it’s wrists and hold them behind its back.

“I’ve got it!” Hyunjin declared as the frog struggled to free itself from her grasp.

Haseul crouched to look at the young girl hiding under the bed. She was shaking slightly, her bottom lip quivering out of fear.

“You’re safe now.” Haseul held her arms out, beckoning the girl from her hiding place.

Slowly, Yeojin started army-crawling towards the leader. She got herself out, standing upright.

And once she did, she immediately started screaming again and ran out of the room.

“Yeojin-ah! Wait!”

Haseul would’ve gone after the maknae if the frog hadn’t wrestled itself out of Hyunjin’s hold and bounced out of the room to continue its chase.

“Why didn’t it work?” Haseul looked at the two other members in confusion, “The energy-pulse thing should’ve happened, like it did for you two…”

Heejin frowned, holding her face in her hands. She closed her eyes for a good thirty seconds before opening them and responding to the leader.

“Well, for Hyunjin and I, both of our nightmares were tied to a specific fear we have. It’s really sweet that your fear was not being able to help me...” She gave Hyunjin a small smile before returning to the subject at hand, “I’m going to assume her biggest fear isn’t a cartoon frog-guy?”

“... I guess not.”

“Then I think we need to figure out why the frog is chasing her, or at least what it means that it’s chasing her.” Heejin concluded.

She did have a point with her explanation. Haseul remembered Yeojin yelling to the frog that she “wasn’t ready”, whatever that meant, so there was definitely something hiding beneath the surface of the situation beyond being chased down by a scary amphibian dude.

“I think you’re right, Heejinie. I’m just going to need to figure out what’s actually happening. That would be much easier if she wasn’t running away every five seconds.”

Hyunjin offered a solution. “Heejin and I will get the frog again so you can talk to her. But we should probably find something to subdue it that works better than a cereal box.”

Heejin gave her friend a slight shove. “Hey! It’s all I could find! And it _did_ work, sort of…”

The leader chuckled at the two younger girls, her eyes landing on the bed. She tossed the pillows and the blanket on the ground, peeling the sheet off of the mattress.

“What are you doing unnie?” She heard Hyunjin ask.

Haseul started rolling the sheet in on itself. “I was thinking we could make it into some sort of rope? Don’t they do that in the movies, when someone’s trying to sneak out of their room at night?” 

She was able to form it into a pretty solid rope, all things considered. She admired her work for a second before looking towards her friends, noticing Heejin’s playfully arched eyebrow. 

“Oh, is that why you’re so good at it then?”

Hyunjin and Heejin both broke into a fit of laughter, and Haseul threw her head back in exasperation. “Will you guys stop picking on me and make some ropes out of the rest of this stuff?” She hid her smile by punctuating her sentence with a sigh.

Their laughter didn’t stop, but they did help by tying the pillow cases and the comforter into something reminiscent of a rope

While grabbing their newly-fashioned materials, Hyunjin chimed in, “The last thing I was expecting to do today was to be wrangling a humanoid frog.”

“I bet you weren’t expecting to turn into a cat either.” Heejin added.

Hyunjin grimaced. “No. Definitely not.”

On their search for Yeojin and the frog, they headed into the curtain room. The three had barely stepped inside before the sounds of screams and jumps started getting louder again.

The three pressed themselves up against the wall in alarm. Sure enough, Yeojin came rushing through like Cinderella leaving the ball at midnight, followed closely by the unsettling animal. Its tongue shot out of its mouth for the second time, narrowly missing Yeojin and instead knocking her tiara off of her head. It clattered against the hard ground, breaking in half.

“Yeojin!” Haseul readied herself to follow them, but stopped when Hyunjin shook her head. 

“We should stay here and wait for them to come back. Once Yeojin-ah passes through, you and Heejin can pull your rope to trip the frog. I’ll stand over here with the other ropes to start tying it up while you go after her.”

“Good idea.” Haseul agreed. She tossed her sheet-rope to Heejin, the two keeping it loose for the time being. Hyunjin positioned herself behind the pair, ready to spring into action.

A few minutes passed. They stayed alert, waiting for their moment to act.

Haseul felt that she needed to appreciate Yeojin’s loud voice more after it helped prepare her for what was about to happen.   
Once her yelling came within earshot, she got ready to pull the sheet tight. Heejin looked equally as concentrated.

Yeojin rushed in, stepping right over the rope on the floor without stopping. From the corner of her eye, she saw the frog’s leather shoes come into view.

“NOW!”

They pulled the makeshift rope as tight as they could. As the frog pursued the younger girl, its foot caught the sheet and sent it flying through the air.

As ready as Hyunjin was to restrain him, she didn’t seem to have much work to do. The frog had flown directly into one of the curtains and was comically wrapped into it like some sort of cocoon. 

Still, Hyunjin tried to tie part of the rope around it to keep it tied down. Heejin joined her friend, waving Haseul off. “We’ve got it from here: go find her.”

Nodding, Haseul started towards the theatre room in hopes of finding Yeojin. She spotted the broken crown near her feet, and something compelled her to pick it up. 

Holding it in her hands felt right somehow. 

She took the two pieces with her as she continued her search. Once she got into the theatre room, she heard loud sobs echoing off of the walls. 

_She has to be close._

It didn’t take her long to spot a touch of white fabric peeking out from behind the puppet show. Haseul took a deep breath, reading herself for this conversation. 

The leader didn’t want to scare the already-on-edge maknae, so she approached as slowly as possible. Yeojin started coming into view: her ponytail was now almost completely undone, drooping sadly down her back. She held her knees to her chest tightly, her face buried into her legs.

What struck Haseul the most was just how _young_ this Yeojin looked. It was as if she was staring at the same girl who’d filmed Kiss Later and not the person she knew back at the dorms.

“Yeojinie?” She spoke softly from above the girl, “It’s Haseul. Is it alright if we talk?”

Yeojin looked up, her brown eyes glittering with tears.   
Haseul wasn’t sure how many more times she could watch her members cry before her heart would be permanently cracked.

“Haseul unnie-” Sobs broke her sentence, “I’m not ready, I’m not- I’m not!”

The girl continued to cry as Haseul sat down on her knees in front of her. She set the crown to the side, taking both of Yeojin’s hands in her own and rubbing her fingers soothingly over her palms. “What aren’t you ready for?”

The maknae shook her head wildly. “I - I don’t want to give it up yet-”  
In the middle of her sentence, Yeojin’s eyes landed on the broken tiara. It held her interest for a few seconds, distracting her from crying.

Haseul dropped Yeojin’s hands, reaching for the accessory. “I found this on the ground earlier… did you want it back?”

She nodded, wiping some of her tears away.

_This tiara has to mean something, right? But what?_

The leader didn’t have a way to definitely fix it without some glue, but since the bottom of the crown was made to stick into her hair she was able to at least make it seem like it was complete.

“All better,” Haseul soothed, smiling down at the girl. “It looks perfect on you.”

“Really?” Yeojin asked, her eyes gaining a look of hopefulness that Haseul was grateful to see.

“Really. You must like this crown, huh?”

Yeojin nodded again, slowly this time. “I like my crown, and my dress, and my games….” She seemed a little shy, but Haseul’s patient listening seemed to get her to continue with her timid ramble. “I like being taken care of. I like feeling cared about, and you’re always good to me like that unnie.”

If Yeojin’s crying had snapped Haseul’s heart, this comment got it to melt into a puddle.

“It’s because you make it so easy~” Haseul smiled, able to draw a few giggles from Yeojin.

“Is that what you don’t want to give up?’ Haseul continued gently, “You don’t want to give up your dresses or your crowns? You don’t want to stop being taken care of?”

Yeojin stared at her shoes, an embarrassed blush creeping onto her cheeks.

“You don’t want to grow up too fast?” Haseul tried.

That last question was what drew a final nod from the girl.

Haseul reflected on her own statement. “It must have been scary when you made your debut so young...”   
Growing up is hard enough as it is, but growing up in the entertainment industry must’ve amplified that to an insane degree. Haseul hadn’t even considered that it was something Yeojin was struggling with.

“I wish I could promise you that everyone watching will see you as a young girl, Yeojinie. I really wish I could. But I want you to know that you’ll always be our maknae, no matter how old you are. And you want to know a secret?”

“What?”

Haseul leaned in closer, whispering, “Just because you become an adult, it doesn’t mean that you can’t play games or be taken care of anymore.”

Yeojin mulled over this for a while, fiddling with the hem of her dress. “You really promise that, unnie?”

“I promise, Yeojinie. We can even hug on it if it makes you feel better.”

Yeojin grinned brightly. “I’d like that.”

Haseul put her arms around Yeojin’s shoulder, the smaller girl doing the same to Haseul’s middle. They shared an embrace so tight that Haseul barely noticed the shot of energy pulse through her.

Yeojin was the first to pull away. She seemed a little hazy, glancing around at herself and at her surroundings. “Haseul unnie?”

Her voice was back to having its familiar Yeojin spunk. It made Haseul want to pull her back into another hug, but she restrained herself. “Welcome back, Yeojinie.”

While Yeojin was in her confused stupor, Heejin and Hyunjin rushed into the theatre room. Hyunjin started frantically yelling.

“Unnie! The frog vanished! Is everything fixed?”

Haseul offered a hand to the maknae, and they pulled each other to their feet. “I think so.”

“Where are we, guys?” Yeojin glanced between the three older girls, “Why did that happen to me? Is this some sort of dream?”

“We’re still trying to figure that part out,” Heejin admitted, “What do you remember last?”

“I remember…” Yeojin shut her eyes to concentrate, “I remember I was about to leave the dorm… Chaewon unnie told me that Haseul unnie never came back from her walk, and then they found a letter on her bed… I was going to go look for her...”

While Yeojin’s side of the events corroborated Haseul’s admission that the blonde had seen her leave, it probably didn’t help considering she still hadn’t told them the reason she’d left.

Not to mention the fact that what she’d told Chaewon was _actually_ a lie: she hadn’t gone for a walk at all.

Haseul sucked in a breath. “I’m still not ready to talk about it,” she insisted, mostly to Heejin and Hyunjin who were back to staring at her expectantly, “But if Vivi unnie did find the letter like you said, I guess you’ll find out soon enough…”

Usually, having her confession letter recounted to her members would scare her more.  
Usually, having to go into a nightmare blind would scare her more.

But what truly scared Haseul this time was that she had an idea of what was in store for them once they got to Vivi’s music video.  
She didn’t know if she would be able to handle seeing Vivi experiencing her own worst fears without completely falling apart herself.

They were all knocked into the next nightmare soon after.


End file.
